That airplane was way ahead of its time. It has always been one of my favorites.

When I will a little kid I got to touch one threw a mitten. It was hanging in the climatic hanger at Egland AFB and they were simulating arctic conditions. AWESOME!!

One year for Christmas my wife got them the Pilot Operating Handbook for the SR-71 right after it was declassified. Man, there is a ton of great info in there about the operation of the aircraft.

The emergency procedure section is curiously slim. Most things are only a few steps long and end with EJECT...

There was a day when I saw one being hauled down I-95 outside of Washington DC. The fuselage was on a long trailer and the wings were cut off as if a huge band saw was used and every single wing spare was cut through. I actually cried when I saw that. It just was not right to do that to that great airplane.

Back in my early years in the Air Force (retired after 26 years in Nov 2009) I was TDY twice to RAF Mildenhall, England on rotation with our C130s from Pope AFB, NC.

Back then the SR-71 flew regularly out of Mildenhall. It's flying schedule was classified and closely guarded, but the KC-135 schedule was posted daily in the shop we were attached to; since the SR-71 had to be refueled very shortly after take-off, and since only the modified "KC-135Q model" could refuel it, there was a pretty good chance the SR-71 would be taking off when the Q model was on the schedule. Those were the days we chose to preposition our launch van on the taxiway close to the C130's.

It was always a thrill to watch the Blackbird take-off from the taxiway adjacent to the runway. The afterburner blue flames coming out of that plane's engines were absolutely an awesome sight. This picture refreshed those memories and I can visualize it in my mind now 25 years later.

Hate to show my age with this post, but as a young jarhead on Okinawa in the early 80s we would see these fairly frequently out of Kadena AB.
Never failed to draw your attention no matter how many times you witnessed them. north korea fired a aa missile at one once, I believe the pilot detected hostile fire and evaded (think hyperspace). Hostile shot was a miss, reported to be by ten miles !!!

I was stationed in Okinawa at Kadena AFB from 1976 to 1977. The "Habu Hanger" was across the runway from our shop. It was really something to see the preflight of this aircraft as the crew chiefs had to use step ladders to check the fusalage. One of our school administrators at my previous school was an SR-71 pilot. He still wasn't able to discuss his missions after the bird was retired.

Back in my early years in the Air Force (retired after 26 years in Nov 2009) I was TDY twice to RAF Mildenhall, England on rotation with our C130s from Pope AFB, NC.

Back then the SR-71 flew regularly out of Mildenhall. It's flying schedule was classified and closely guarded, but the KC-135 schedule was posted daily in the shop we were attached to; since the SR-71 had to be refueled very shortly after take-off, and since only the modified "KC-135Q model" could refuel it, there was a pretty good chance the SR-71 would be taking off when the Q model was on the schedule. Those were the days we chose to preposition our launch van on the taxiway close to the C130's.

It was always a thrill to watch the Blackbird take-off from the taxiway adjacent to the runway. The afterburner blue flames coming out of that plane's engines were absolutely an awesome sight. This picture refreshed those memories and I can visualize it in my mind now 25 years later.

Greg, Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Bump Rep!

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ThAt is crazy. My dad would fly all the out to england but it was top secret at the time(I was to young to remember, but me mom does!!

My dad just told me that my mom threw over 100 pictures away with out his knowledge. He is still pissed to this day

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Ouch. That's no bueno.

Got to see the Sled that is parked at Dulles just a couple hours ago...Such a damn amazing plane. Looks fast as hell just sitting there. Lots of other great stuff there too. The Enola Gay is a big one...And the shuttle ENTERPRISE.